


Coping, Healing and Physical Trauma A Character Study of Rocket Raccoon Or Why this Trash Panda is so Damn Relatable

by EmilliaGryphon



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), MCU, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, gotg
Genre: Character Study, Essay, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 09:51:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12318603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilliaGryphon/pseuds/EmilliaGryphon
Summary: This is not a work of fiction. This is a character study, essay on Rocket Raccoon from GOTG as he relates to my own experience with physical trauma. I DO NOT speak for anyone who has suffered this type of trauma, this is a personal reflection essay of my own experience. Needless to say writing this was deeply personal and at times difficult so I post it on here with the trust that people will be kind when reading it. I am not a psychologist or an expert. I'm just someone who relates to talking raccoon in need of an attitude adjustment. If you post a comment here berating me or judging me I will block you. I don't mean to come off as mean or defensive but this is the internet so I'm just forewarning. I hope you enjoy and please message me with any questions or comments. I am happy to discuss.





	Coping, Healing and Physical Trauma A Character Study of Rocket Raccoon Or Why this Trash Panda is so Damn Relatable

 

**Intro:**

I’ve seen a lot in the Guardians fandom about how much people relate to Groot. Groot is an incredible character and I am so inspired by those who have told their stories that I wanted to take the time to write about how I personally find Rocket to be incredibly relatable. For this piece, I will largely be drawing from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and some of Rocket Raccoon’s comics.

Rocket Raccoon was created by writer [Bill Mantlo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mantlo) and artist [Keith Giffen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Giffen) at Marvel comics in the late 70’s. He was based off the 1968 Beatles song “Rocky Raccoon.” He debuted in _Marvel Preview #7 1976_ but only made scant appearances (manly in The Incredible Hulk comics,) until he became a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy 30 years later. On the surface, Rocket is a gun toting talking, hyper-intelligent raccoon who hangs out with a humanoid tree. He has some serious anger issues, kleptomania and is quite the escape artist. Yet there is much more to the furry creature besides; Rocket is a flawed anti-hero who is one of a kind and quite lonely in the galaxy, he is an anomaly and goes about his life dealing with the residual trauma of being created by mad scientists from a lower life form. Free from the lab whence he came, Rocket goes around on his space adventures, joins the Guardians and befriends Groot; yet he never really has had the time to work through his trauma. That is part of what makes him so compelling, he is not healing from this trauma he is only coping with it. Something that is true for many of us. Most depictions of trauma are about getting through it, over it. But Rocket’s character isn’t about that, he isn’t supposed to be about or exemplary of anything. He’s supposed to be a funny talking raccoon with enhanced abilities. Yet I find that my own experience, and undoubtedly those of others, more closely mirrors that of Rocket than other pop-culture characters. As one insightful Tumblr user, Memoryweaverphoto put it: “If you relate to a standard film character, say a child or animal or adult, then the emotions are usually easily defined — but Rocket (and Groot as well) breaks across the barriers of what we normally encounter in a way that's entirely new.” Relating to Rocket, (and to a lesser extent personally,) Groot is strange because they are so far yet so close from human. It’s odd, it transcends the traditional way one consumes media, narrative and character

**Physical Trauma**

Surely there’s a more scientific way to say this but physical trauma in this context refers to trauma that one has suffered because of something being physically done to their body-distinguished from, though not dissimilar to sexual trauma. Rocket is relatable to anyone who has had this type of pain inflicted on them, anyone who has lost their bodily autonomy, anyone who has gone through many painful procedures done on them.  For example, Rocket’s line: “I didn’t ask to be torn apart, put back together all over and over,” resonated with my own experience in a starkly literal way.

 We first see the evidence of this physical trauma in the first GOTG movie in the Kyln, to the upbeat jam of “Hooked on a Feeling.” The Guardians are being decontaminated when the camera shows Rocket being shoved out of the shower area. He holds the clothing that the prison has provided him with, but other than that he is totally uncovered. We see Peter, following Rocket’s footsteps and beholding a series of screws in Rocket’s back. If you look closely during this shot, you can also see a panel underneath the skin. His fur is shaven and there are several bolts screwed into his back. Earlier you can also see two silver bolts on each of his collar bones from the front. From this we can assume that he was quite literally torn apart and tortured to be shaped into a biped. There is a wonderful post about this on Tumblr going around already if you search the tag ‘Rocket Raccoon’ wherein the user compares the normal skeletal structure of a raccoon, to Rocket’s enhanced physiology. It is never explicitly stated exactly what was done to him and Rocket never has any intention of letting them know that there is anything abnormal about his body. The only reason we know there is, is because Peter accidently sees it.

**Coping vs. Healing**

One of the most compelling things about Rocket is that he is not healing from his trauma. He is, like so many of us: coping. To distinguish, healing means that you are actively trying to process your trauma. You acknowledge it and the way it affects you and you are taking steps to try and lessen its impact on your quality of life. You are making a conscious effort to heal yourself body, heart, mind and soul. Coping on the other hand is not something you want to do. There is no conscious effort, you are not on a mission to do anything. Maybe you have acknowledged your trauma and its effects, maybe you haven’t. You are trying to live your life in spite of your trauma and its impacts. Rocket displays the effect of his trauma in the first GOTG movie when he is drunk, and it is only after he has been repeatedly insulted as vermin or a rodent. He is fed up and all that pain he keeps inside leaks out. Many people play out like they are fine. They shove down that trauma and deal with it by shrugging it off. But every once and awhile that emotional psychological dam breaks. Just like how Rocket’s breaks and how he copes through emotional repression, drinking and lashing out.

**The Seen and Unseen Effects of Physical Trauma**

When most people think of the effects of trauma they think of terrible nightmares, thrashing in one’s sleep, flashbacks and other bouts of terror. All of these things are true for many people who have suffered bodily trauma but it is not true or everyone. As far as cannon goes, Rocket does not appear to exhibit any of these symptoms. But that doesn’t mean he suffers any less. We already discussed how that barrier Rocket puts up sometimes breaks and that is true. But even when he is not shouting and threatening to shoot people he still carries the burden of his experience. In the article, _We Are Groot: ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Celebrates Heroes With Authentic Psychological Deficits_ (2014)  [Dr. Andrea Letamendi](http://comicsalliance.com/author/andrealetamendi/) psychoanalyzes each of the guardians in turn. On Rocket she writes, “Rocket knows he’s not normal…[his] issues with his own identity are further revealed by the distance he creates between himself and painful emotional experiences. While we often witness him express anger, ferocity, exasperation, grouchiness and other “secondary” emotions, he’s not tuned into his “primary” emotions —  feelings like sadness, grief, and fear.” Rocket takes all his primary emotions and forces them into secondary ones because they are easier to deal with, this includes feelings about his existence and his past. Dr. Letamendi continues, “When he’s vulnerable to feeling those things, Rocket may reject them because they’re too difficult to tolerate or he simply isn’t equipped to readily process them; instead, he turns to secondary emotions like anger and irritation.”  As we know from the first Guardians movie, as well as subsequent comics Rocket isn’t always an angry jerk. He does have deeper emotions, but these secondary emotions are much easier to express. It ties back in to the fear of vulnerability.

 Impulsiveness is another way that he channels the feels he does not want to handle. In the first movie, Rocket’s hasty decision to crash through the Dark Aster ultimately results in Groot needing to sacrifice himself ergo, dying. In the second GOTG movie Rocket steals batteries from the Sovereign.  Simultaneously a brilliant tactician and strategist, his recklessness is a contrast with his other qualities of planning and escaping. Both these actions have dire consequences. Movies with Mikey agrees saying, “Rocket does many things for the wrong reasons. Like flying his ship into the crashing ship, failing to do the thing he was attempting to do and destroying the only means of escape, so Groot has to die.” Rocket does not necessarily realize these consequences right away either. He continues to allow his anger and impulsiveness to get the better of him.

Drinking is another aspect of coping that Rocket engages in, after all he is drunk when he talks about his past for the first time. Alcohol can act as a buffer against unwanted memories and thoughts but it can also open -up those dark holes. The use of substances to cope with trauma is nothing new and I appreciate that both the movies, and more so the comics do not shy away from this. It is never laid out plain that Rocket engages in substance abuse to avoid dealing with his past but there are multiple instances that show the raccoon at whatever dive bar he and the Guardians, (sometimes just him and Groot) happen to be visiting. Many people use alcohol to distract themselves from the reality of what’s happened to them. There are many fanfics that go in depth with this element of Rocket’s character and I recommend them for anyone wanting to dig deeper into Rocket’s psychology.

Another unseen effect of bodily trauma is found in Rocket’s inability to let people in. (Groot as an exception to this will be discussed soon.) Rocket was brutalized by his creators, he has never been accepted and he has no other creature like himself in the galaxy. In her superb video essay, “The Complex Feels of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.” Film critic Lindsay Ellis spells out Rocket’s emotional repression: “Rocket engages in some serious self-sabotage because deep down he expects to be abandoned by those he loves…Rocket’s damage centers wholly around a fear of condescension and rejection; a fear so profound he creates scenarios for his friends to reject him.” Rocket pushes his friends away because he does not believe that he deserves their friendship or love. Why might he think that? Well when you’ve been manipulated, lost all of your bodily autonomy and agency you can internalize those feelings of worthlessness. Even those who’s bodily trauma has little to do with the people who caused it and everything to do with the procedures themselves. Rocket’s bodily trauma results from both. All this to say that the unseen effects of bodily trauma stem from this primal urge to protect yourself as well as an internalization of the loss of bodily autonomy. You don’t believe you deserve love or acceptance because growing up your body was not loved or accepted- it was mutilated. As Ellis sums this up brilliantly, “Rocket’s entire world view is built on the expectation that the people he loves will abandon him and that he is not deserving of being loved.” Yondu points out exactly this in my favorite scene from GOTGVol 2. See below this dialogue when Rocket, Baby Groot, Kraglin and Yondu have just escaped from the ravagers and they are going to save Quill and the rest of the gang:

 **Rocket** : _I could tell by how you talked about him this Ego is bad news! We're here to save Quill._

 **Yondu** : _For what?! Huh?! For honor? For love?!_

 **Rocket** : _No, I don't care about those things! I wanna save Quill so I can prove I'm better than him! I can low this over him forever. [Yondu suddenly cracks in laughter as he gets up] What are you laughing at me for?_

 **Yondu** : _You can fool yourself and everyone else, but you can't fool me. I know who you are._

**Rocket** _: You don't know anything about me, loser._

**Yondu** : _I know everything about you. I know you play like you're the meanest and the hardest but actually you're the most scared of all._

 **Rocket** : _Shut up!_

 **Yondu** : _I know you steal batteries you don't need and you push away anyone who's willing to put up with you 'cause just a little bit of love reminds you of how big and empty that hole inside you actually is._

**Rocket** _: I said "shut up"!_

**Yondu** : _I know them scientists what made you, never gave a rat's ass about you!_

 **Rocket** : _I'm serious, dude!_

 **Yondu** : _Just like my own damn parents who sold me! Their own little baby, into slavery. I know who you are, boy, because you're me._

_[They both look at each other]_

**Rocket** : _...What kind of a pair are we?_

There is a lot going on in this scene; Yondu recognizes Rocket’s self-sabotaging behavior and calls him out, warning him lest he end up like Yondu, all alone and disgraced. Rocket pushes everyone away not only because he is afraid of expressing vulnerability or because of internalized self-hatred but also because he does not want to face the devastating reality of his own emptiness and the effects of his trauma. By the end of the movie however he sees that the ravagers have forgiven Yondu for his mistakes, those that were very similar to his own.  But just because Rocket has and continues to suffer does not mean he gets a free pass to be a jerk to everyone. That is a complex and groundbreaking moment in someone’s life, but Rocket goes through it, we watch him push everyone away, we watch Yondu recognize him as a kindred spirit and warn him against continuing along that path, we watch Rocket accept Yondu’s words but only after he dies. Wheather or not Rocket takes Yondu’s words to heart or not, we will have to wait and see.

**Groot**

One cannot possibly deconstruct Rocket as a character without discussing Groot. Whoever you ship, whatever your head-cannon, one cannot argue that Rocket and Groot share a special bond. Groot is the opposite of his furry friend. Where Rocket is often angry and irritable Groot is open and kind. Rocket talks a lot of smack and gets easily frustrated. Groot is more happy-go-lucky. Rocket does not open to people easily, but he does choose to team up with a talking humanoid tree; coincidently the only other guardian of the bunch who is the most far from human. Depending on the comics you read Rocket and Groot either met in Halfworld at the laboratory where Rocket was created or, more popular, they met in prison where Groot was tossed into the same cell as Rocket. In the GOTG movies the only clue on their lives before the battle with Xandar is heard as each of the GOTG pass through the Nova officer’s roster.

**Officer Saal:** _“What the hell…?”_

**Officer Day:** _“They call it Groot. A humanoid plant that’s been traveling around recently as 89P13’s personal houseplant slash muscle.”_

Although Rocket has difficulty forming fulfilling emotional and social relationships, Groot is an exception to this. As my friend on Tumblr, Skarabrae-stone put it: “Rocket is a jerk. But he’s redeemed by his love for Groot. You can tell he cares about [Groot] very deeply.” Anyone who watches the movies can see this in the way Rocket interacts with his plant friend.

Groot is able to calm Rocket down after the Collector refers to him as a pet and later Groot saves Rocket from the explosion of the Infinity Stone. Another reason for their bond lies in the fact that Rocket is the only one of the guardians who can understand Groot’s limited vocabulary of “I am Groot.” Dr. Letamendi points out that while Groot has limited verbal communication skills his social and emotional intelligence are quite advanced. She writes: “Groot has an emotional intelligence well above that of his peers. When Ronan’s ship explodes, and begins to crash, Groot does not hesitate to wrap his branches around his friends to create a protective enclosure, even though doing so will certainly result in his own death.

 **Rocket:** _No Groot! You can’t! You’ll die! Why are you doing this?! Why?!_

Nonetheless, Groot is resolute in protecting his friends, saying calmly, with assuredness, “We are Groot.” Groot surprises us with his capacity for self-awareness and his sophisticated understanding of emotional knowledge. He’s essentially saying, “You’re all a part of me, an extension of me. Without you, I don’t exist.” Groot also understands that the destruction of his physical self does not mean he ceases to be; his sense of self transcends his recyclable body.”

In a way, Groot is very much Rocket’s conscious. He protects and defends the raccoon, but he also draws the line when Rocket insults Drax for the loss of his wife and daughter. It is Groot who convinces Rocket-begrudgingly-to go and save Quill and Gamora. Letamendi cements the crux of their shared co-dependent emotional and psychological relationship saying, “…when Groot sacrifices himself for the team, Rocket finally sheds his exterior and breaks down, giving way to real sadness and grief. His psychological symbiosis with Groot is telling: Rocket’s cognitive intelligence and problem-solving help them survive, and Groot’s emotional wisdom and sense of relationships keeps them bonded.” When a new Groot grew from his vines, Rocket immediately assumes a parenting role. In a way, the dynamic is flipped. Old Groot protected Rocket, looked after him and made sure he didn’t do anything too extreme, in Vol. 2 we see that it is Rocket who must take on that responsibility for a younger Groot. In a way Groot’s death was the very first catalyst for Rocket to finally begin making a change in his life, Yondu took it a step further by directly upwelling the destructive habits Rocket has and warned him against continuing down that path. When you push your own trauma so far down, cope with it for so long, it can take some pretty horrible things to force you to begin facing it. For Rocket it was losing Groot, and then losing Yondu. Contrast to that, it sometimes takes a supportive family or similar network. Rocket lost Groot-the only other being he had a supportive relationship with-and Yondu but he also gained the rest of the guardians as a family. Even people who have been very lucky to have a supportive family behind them, but Rocket needed to find that for himself and lose a lot along the way too. Groot is arguably the most important part of Rocket’s family and undeniably the most important relationship that Rocket has in his life. Groot is central to Rocket’s character and vice versa even when their roles change. In the director’s commentary of the first GOTG movie, James Gunn talks about the contrast and compatibility of Groot and Rocket: “He’s this little innocent creature, just an animal who was experimented on and hurt and changed and manipulated for the benefit of someone else. He’s very, very alone…his consciousness and his being are very different from anything else in the universe because he’s one of a kind. That’s Rocket, he’s so funny and he has all these humorous asides but at the heart of it all he’s a very, very, very, sad creature and he’s definitely the most wounded of all of the guardians…and beside him is the character who is the least wounded who is Groot…Groot is the soul of the movie in a lot of ways. He’s the only one of the guardians that has any sort of sweetness to them…”

Groot represents and stands for everything that Rocket is not. Rocket represents and stands for everything that Groot would be against, Groot also represents someone who is successfully living with traumatic experiences. A goal that Rocket has not yet achieved. Groot is so open and loving and forgiving of people’s flaws, Rocket is the opposite. Yet they work and they share an unconditional platonic love for one another. Groot loves Rocket despite all his flaws, even though Rocket is so crass and damaged. That love transcends Groot’s death and Baby Groot’s emergence, if one notices Rocket does not call Baby Groot an idiot at all, even when he gets inpatient. Groot and Rocket are different sides of the same coin. Again, only time will tell how their bond will change over time as this new Groot grows and Rocket slowly begins to face himself and his past.

**Conclusion**

In setting out to write this I wanted to provide a deep dive into Rocket’s character and his many layers. I could go on and on and on about the different depths of this character such as what his origin was before the laboratories, what his parental situation must have been as a baby raccoon, etc. The bottom line is that I don’t believe I’ll be able to adequately express just how much Rocket’s character means to me. I, and many others, can relate to him because he does not handle his trauma well at all. He screws up, again and again and again. It’s messy to watch and read about. You feel for him because he is in a way, very helpless. Because he will not take actions to heal from his past. Many people have had that experience, and I have never seen these complex concepts of physically induced trauma handled with such gritty subtext and accuracy. It is absurd that a comic book character of a talking raccoon who swears and carries machine guns is so relatable. But it’s because he is so absurd that it works. James Gunn, Sean Gunn, the visual effects artists and Bradley Cooper somehow came together to make an exemplary character that we feel for and care about. Rocket and Groot are anomalies both in our world and in theirs. We do with them what we have always done to characters in literature and pop-culture. We project our own dreams, hopes, flaws and fears on to them. Rocket Raccoon and Groot might be outrageous nerdy characters of a specific sect of a pop-culture fandom. But they are also human in the way that they have human flaws, wants and desires. There are lots of people who are still in the “Rocket phase” of dealing with their own physically induced trauma. Still messing up, pushing it down even though they moments of coming to terms with it. There are many who will never get to be “Groot,”-that is healing and opening oneself up. But Groot and Rocket are fictional characters and as we go on these hard paths and try to come to grips with, and distract ourselves from trauma we need fiction, we need characters who resemble ourselves and our struggles, our hopes and our dreams even if we cannot do it ourselves, indeeded in many ways, because of that. At the end of his speech Yondu yells: “I know who you are boy, because you're me!” Rocket isn’t just Yondu, he is anyone who has made self-deprecating choices to distract us from the hard things about our life, Rocket is anyone who messes up and must face consequences yet continues to mess up. He is anyone who has ever lashed out in anger, anyone who pushes people away out of self-hatred and anyone who has ever had a best friend, a soul mate and lost them.

Recently GOTG1&2 director James Gunn released the script for the second Guardians movie online, one of the last scenes of the movie wherein Peter and Rocket come to an understanding is originally written as such:

**Rocket:** _He didn’t chase ‘em away._

**Quill:** _No._

 **Rocket:** _Even though he yelled at ‘em._

Quill shakes his head.

 **Rocket:**   _And was always mean._

Quill shakes his head.

**Rocket:** _and he stole batteries he didn’t need._

Quill is surprised - what? And then he looks at Rocket, a little animal who doesn’t know the rules of how to be….

“A little animal who doesn’t know the rules of how to be.” That there is the core of who Rocket is, his entire character. He doesn't know how to be, how to exist in a world carrying the weight of physical trauma, grief and struggling to cope with those experiences. It is only at the end of Vol 2 that we see Rocket may finally able to start healing from his past. We are all beings who do not yet know how to be, Rocket is a prime, abet absurd, exemplar of this and is a dramatic representation of our own inability to heal and discover our true selves; whether the reasons for that are driven by our own inhibitions, traumas (of any and all kinds,) or other circumstances. Say what you want, the Trash Panda is damn relatable.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Further Interest:
> 
> Below are some of the videos and articles I referenced in my piece, enjoy!
> 
> Lindsay Ellis: The Complex Feels of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
> 
> Movies with Mikey: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1
> 
> Dr. Andrea Letamendi: We Are Groot Guardians of the Galaxy Celebrates Heroes With Real Psychological Defects
> 
>  There is a plethora of fanfictions that explore variations of Rocket’s past and his psyche, message me for recommendations!If the links don't work message me and I will send them to you!


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